Bright lanthanide based probes for optical bioimaging must rely on the antenna principle, where the lanthanide‐centred excited state is formed by a complex sensitization process. Efficient sensitization of lanthanide‐centred emission occurs via triplet states centred on the sensitizing chromophore. Here, the triplet state of thioxanthone chromophores is modulated by extending the π‐system. Three thioxanthone chromophores‐thioxanthone, benzo[c]thioxanthone, and naphtho[2,3‐c]thioxanthone were synthesised and characterised. The triplet state energies and lifetimes is found to change as expected, and two dyes are found to be suitable sensitizers for europium(iii) luminescence. Reactive derivatives of thioxanthone and benzo[c]thioxanthone were prepared and coupled to a 1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7‐triacetic acid (DO3A) lanthanide binding pocket. The photophysics and the performance in optical bioimaging of the resulting europium(iii) complexes were investigated. It is concluded that while the energetics favour efficient sensitization, the solution structure does not. While it was found that the complexes are too lipophilic to be efficient luminescent probes for optical bioimaging, we successfully demonstrated bioimaging using europium(iii) luminescence following 405 nm excitation.
Invited for this month's cover are the collaborating groups of Dr. Thomas Just Sørensen at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Dr. Robert Pal at Durham University, United Kingdom. The front cover shows the clouds parting for a cell imaged using a thioxanthone‐appended EuIII complex. This work shows that lanthanide luminescence can be used in optical bioimaging with microscopes equipped with the common blue laser line. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/cplu.201900309.
The front cover shows the clouds parting for a cell imaged using predominantly mitochondrial‐selective staining with a thioxanthone‐appended europium(III) complex. Lanthanide luminescence can therefore be used in optical bioimaging by excitation with the common blue (405 nm) laser line, thus indicating that that this type of molecular probe—following appropriate modifications—are a promising tool for the multidisciplinary imaging community. More details are given in the Full Paper by T. Just Sørensen and co‐workers on page 1778 in Issue 12, 2019 (DOI: 10.1002/cplu.201900309).
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